Danica Swanson (danicaswanson)

I rarely write about US politics on the purple app because Reasons, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon. But I will say this much. I hate the Fourth of July, and that's not just because I hate fireworks. This "beautiful" bill that's just been signed? Bleak. It's monstrous cruelty. And the timing heaps it on even thicker. There's an unfinished essay in my files called "USA: The Land of Suffering With a Smile." I set it aside many years ago because I couldn't edit it without sobbing. I revisited it this morning. Still don't know if I can finish it, but today I'm angry enough that I might try.

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Introducing Studio Slowcore: a new Farcaster-native creative production studio focused on wordsmith arts and slow culture. Our motto: "Move slow and preserve things." Studio contributors:* - Danica Swanson (founder, co-steward, channel owner, word-slinger-in-chief) - @trigs.eth (co-steward, channel mod, wordsmith, community call host) - @y0b (co-steward, channel mod, wordsmith, gift economics consultant) In keeping with our slow culture roots, we practice: I. stewardship II. slowcraft III. sustained attention This week marks the first in our planned series of three Farcaster-exclusive mini-launches building toward a hybrid gift economy + business endeavor. I. Stewardship (channel hosting + gift economy lab) Our team is excited to kick off phase one of our launch with the revival of the /slowcore-hq channel and the introduction of a new channel: /gift-economics (kindly gifted to us by @ted). Look for more news in both channels later today. II. Slowcraft (editorial business) We think there's an untapped market in Farcaster's social economy for wordsmiths (and other service providers) who work the slowcore way: focused attention to detail, commitment to craft, and health over hustle. That's how we leave room for "slow-motion bullseyes." In phase two we'll launch our editorial services, including copy editing, grant writing assistance, and building custom editorial style guides. If there's significant interest and bandwidth is available, we may also consider reviving our editorial wiki project. Further details forthcoming in late August (subject to change). III. Sustained Attention (spaces for long reads) We're building digital gardens and browsing rooms that cater to the long-reads crowd. In phase three we plan to publish this work in Obsidian with both public and members-only options, including: - All writings for the FC-native journal project Deep Worth: Notes on Creativity, Labor, and Value, which spawned a thriving group chat. - Special collections of essays and highlights from Danica's former blogs and Substack newsletters (including Of Hearth and Shadow, Endarkenment, and The Anticareerist). - "Public domain art of the day" collections and moodboards. - Dark ambient + drone music playlists from Danica's Chthonic Cathedral Project. - Quote collections, AMAs, and nerd-snipe material (e.g., lecture notes). We may also consider collecting and editing highlights from community conversations in our channels. Further details forthcoming in late September (subject to change). "Slowcore" is our superpower, and we think Farcaster's nascent social Farconomy is the best place to launch a collaborative endeavor that unfolds over time based on the way we work best: - Build slowly and with appreciation for craft. - Weave our work into the network. - Observe what emerges. - Course-correct as needed until we find our groove: i.e., what Henrik Karlsson calls "form-context fit" (citing Notes on the Synthesis of Form by Christopher Alexander). We know this unfolding will require patience, and we're here for it. NOTE: We will NOT be launching a coin. Not for our studio. Not for ourselves as individuals. Not for our channels. ** graphic design by bias

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The Studio Slowcore team is happy to announce our new Substack publication: Return On Attention (RoA). RoA is a community roundtable for deep inquiry into artists’ livelihoods and gift culture. Our aims include: - Hosting spaces for artists to say the quiet parts out loud more often. - Mapping lesser-known structural factors + problem spaces artists must navigate if they hope to build a livelihood through their work. - Building toward real economic reciprocity for artists, and away from extractive patterns of value capture. - Our long-term aim is to build structures of mutualization and network value that can be shared with all contributors whose behind-the-scenes efforts make it possible for us to publish. We've also just released the first issue of the Public Domain Art Portal (PDAP) newsletter, after receiving multiple requests for a newsletter/blog version of my public domain art of the day casts. In addition to RoA and PDAP, our Slowcore HQ section contains "reprints" of early works from the slow-culture movement as it was originally seeded on Farcaster, including two canonical pieces from @tombeck.eth (and a third one on the way!) We quietly beta-launched our Substack via our Farcaster group chat for early testing a couple of months ago. Since then we've shifted our main control room and much of our deep-dive conversation over to Substack. Studio Slowcore is a bootstrapped, minority-owned, hybrid gift economics lab + small business. Our Substack is reader-supported and editorially independent. If you'd like to support our early work, you can do so with fiat or crypto (see the comments for details). We also have sponsorship packages available (contact us for more info). We've published a series of curated highlights from the studio's private-to-public discussion pipeline. You can also see some of these discussions in their original contexts via our /slowcore-hq and /gift-economics channels. We've got many more writings in the works for the coming months and years, and we're excited to continue the experiments toward form-context fit. Special thanks to all the members of our RoA group chat. We greatly value their time, trust, and attention. ~ Danica, Co-Steward + Word-Slinger-in-Chief + Senior Editor ~ @trigs.eth, Co-Steward + Community Call Host ~ Lenara (@y0b), Co-Steward + Moderator

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Expanding on this: initiatives that recognize "builders" can make a big difference for writers + editors by taking care in advance to make it clear that we're on the list of roles who can qualify as builders. It lets writers/editors know our contributions are seen as valuable, rather than treated as an afterthought.

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